Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama today continued their onslaught on each other on the eve of the crucial Pennsylvania primary.
Both Mr Clinton, who needs a big win to keep her candidacy afloat, and Mr Obama, who has closed in to within single digits of her in the latest polls, were accusing the other of ties to special interests they each claim to reject.
Campaign fundraising figures released yesterday showed Mr Obama holding on to his massive advantage, with $20 million raised in March and $21 million available to spend against Ms Clinton this month.
She raised $10 million in March and had $4.5 million for the primary available at the beginning of April. But she also reported debts of $5 million, putting her in the red.
Regardless of the condition of their campaign finances, the Democratic rivals were spending a lot on television advertising in Pennsylvania. Aides in both campaigns claimed Mr Obama was outspending his rival by at least 2-1 on television ads in the state.
With just nine pre-convention contests remaining after Pennsylvania, it appeared mathematically impossible for either candidate to gather the 2,025 elected delegates needed for nomination going into the party convention in
August.
That leaves the nomination in the hands of so-called superdelegates, the nearly 800 party officials who can vote for either candidate regardless of state primary or caucus results.
The Pennsylvania vote will apportion 158 delegates to the August Democratic national convention, but the party's rules for apportioning those delegates mean that even a big victory will likely do little to close Mr Obama's overall lead.
The battle for Pennsylvania turned particularly nasty as Ms Clinton, who initially was expected to win easily and by a large margin, has seen her lead shrink in state polls.
Mr Obama — who is the clear front-runner for the nomination — is fighting equally hard to keep his expected loss as narrow as possible, hoping to diminish Ms Clinton's argument to the superdelegates that she has unstoppable momentum.
She goes into the Pennsylvania primary having most recently won the popular vote in the delegate-heavy states of Texas and Ohio, but Mr Obama leads nationwide in delegates selected in primary elections and state caucuses, in the popular vote and the number of pre-convention state contests won.
Overall, including the nearly 500 superdelegates who have committed to one of the Democrats, Obama leads 1,646 to 1,508.